


Save the Princess

by pleurocoelus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chamber of Secrets, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, First Kiss, First Love, Power of Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 14:03:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12819096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleurocoelus/pseuds/pleurocoelus
Summary: Down in the Chamber of Secrets, a flippant remark by the Shade of Tom Riddle gives Harry a clue on how to save Ginny Weasley. Written for the Carpe Diem Challenge on SIYE.





	Save the Princess

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for The Carpe Diem Challenge (2017) on SIYE, which was for Harry and Ginny to have their first kiss at some point before in canon. I started a few other stories for this challenge, but was unable to finish them. I hope to eventually finish them and post them. 
> 
> This story begins in the Chamber of Secrets not long after Tom appears to Harry.

Harry Potter looked up at the arrogant boy who was casually twirling Harry's wand.   
  
"Yes, Harry Potter," Tom Riddle said with a sneer, "Little Ginny Weasley has been pouring her very soul out to me through my diary. Her dreams, her fears, her hopes, and her desires all flowing into me and making me stronger. Meanwhile, I poured a bit of myself back into her."  
  
The anger on Harry's face was visible, but Tom paid it no mind.  
  
"Really," Tom said with a cruel laugh, "she should have known better than to trust me. Then again, I've always been good at charming the unwary. She's not the first silly little girl I've beguiled."  
  
At that, Harry had heard enough. "She's not a silly little girl," he said more forcefully than he intended.  
  
"What's that?" Tom said scoffingly. "Not a silly little girl? Oh, Potter, you should know what your  _dear little friend_  Ginny Weasley has been writing about you. The reasons she stole my diary back from you. The things she didn't want you to read," Tom said with a cruel laugh.  
  
"Oh, Tom," Riddle recited in a mocking falsetto, "Harry is so cute. I can't believe he talked to me. I'm just Ron's little sister. Why would he even notice me? I'm just a little girl."  
  
Tom looked rather pleased with himself at revealing the secrets that Ginny had told him.   
  
"So what?" Harry said firmly. "I don't think Ginny's silly and I'm the one that she's got a crush on."  
  
"Oh, Harry, Harry," Tom said condescendingly. "Are you developing feelings for little Miss Weasley? Shall I tell you more of her secrets then? How she fancied herself a princess in a fancy gown and you a brave knight? How she dreamed that you rescued her from a foul monster and carried her to your castle in the sky. Or perhaps the fantasy of the Sleeping Beauty, where the prince's kiss woke the fair maiden. Unfortunately, Harry, you are neither prince nor knight. The monster  _will_  come and no knight will save you. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever, Harry Potter, with yours lying right beside it!"  
  
With an evil grin, the shade of Tom Riddle (which was looking ever more substantial by the minute) sketched an arrogant salute at Harry. He then turned to the statue of his ancestor and spoke in Parseltongue.  
  
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."  
  
Just as Harry understood Tom's words perfectly, so too did he understand the serpentine utterances of the basilisk Tom had just called.  
  
"Yes," it said. "I will kill now. So...  _hungry_."  
  
Harry looked around in despair. Then, something struck him and his mind found desperate inspiration in Tom Riddle's mocking words.  
  
Magic was powerful and he didn't understand much of it yet, but if wizards and dragons and magic spells were real, then maybe some other elements of the old fairy stories were true as well. Perhaps damsels in distress could be woken from enchanted sleep with the kiss of a hero!  
  
Unnoticed by Riddle, Harry scooted closer to Ginny's prone form and, ever so gently, he placed a chaste kiss on her lips.  
  
Suddenly, Tom screamed and Harry whipped his head around to look at him. Was it his imagination, or did Tom's figure look slightly more insubstantial than it had before?  
  
"What have you done?" Tom screamed.  
  
Without conscious thought, Harry returned his attention to Ginny and kissed her again and again.   
  
Harry had never given too much thought to the idea of kissing. Somewhere in the back of his mind lurked the idea that girls  _were_  pretty and that he might like to  _someday_  kiss one, but he had not devoted much conscious thought as to the how, or to the who. However, in those brief considerations, never did Harry Potter imagine that his first kiss would be had in a damp chamber deep underground, accompanied by the screams of a wraith.   
  
Before long, the screams began to fade and Harry chanced a look at Riddle. The spectral form of the vile boy was pulsing with a sickly light and the diary was accompanying it in unison. Harry resumed the kisses that he was placing on Ginny and noticed that her colour had returned, but her breathing was still shallow.  
  
After what seemed to Harry to be ages, Tom's screams finally stopped. Harry looked again and saw no trace of the malevolent boy, only the diary whose pulsing glow had faded.  
  
Hearing a rustling sound behind him, Harry suddenly remembered the basilisk.  
  
"Stop," he commanded in Parseltongue. "Close your eyes."  
  
"Speaker," the basilisk hissed, "You have driven away the foul one who called me to this chamber. I now answer to you. What is your command?"  
  
"Return to your nest and sleep," Harry commanded the basilisk, which obeyed his command immediately.  
  
Harry turned to Ginny who was still lying on the stone floor unconscious. Her normal colour was present and she was breathing normally, but she was still unconscious.  
  
"Ginny," he called to her, "wake up." Harry shook her to no avail. Ginny Weasley, though free of Tom Riddle's thrall, was still unconscious.  
  
Harry looked down at Ginny's face. "Oh, well," he thought. "In for a penny, in for a pound."  
  
Sitting on the floor next to her, Harry carefully took Ginny's unconscious form into his arms and kissed her tenderly.  
  
Suddenly, Ginny coughed and her eyes opened. She looked around wildly only to see herself in Harry Potter's arms.   
  
"Harry," she gasped, "we've got to get out of here! Tom..."  
  
Harry gently shushed her. "Tom's back in the diary. We'll give it to Dumbledore and he'll know what to do about it."  
  
"Dumbledore!!" Ginny said with a sob. "Harry, I'm sorry. I'm the one. I did all those horrible things."  
  
"No, Ginny," Harry said kindly while stroking her hair. "It's  _not_  your fault. Tom was controlling you. I'm sure Dumbledore will see it that way, too."  
  
With the worst worries off her mind, Ginny seemed to realize that she was wrapped in Harry's arms. She gasped, then slowly lifted her hand to her lips.  
  
"Harry," she asked, "have you been kissing me?"  
  
Harry blushed, but kept his composure. "I have. I thought that was how the hero woke the fair maiden from her enchanted slumber."  
  
Ginny gasped. "Tom..." she began.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ginny," Harry said softly. "Tom did tell me about your dreams. It reminded me of the old fairy tales and I was desperate to save you from him. I thought it might work and I'm glad it did. When I kissed you, it hurt Tom, so I kept kissing you. Finally, he was sucked back in the diary. I'm sorry that I took advantage of you."  
  
"Harry," Ginny said softly, "you saved me. Never apologise for that. Besides, you're a pretty good kisser." She winked at him before blushing.  
  
Harry blushed as well. "Well, I must be if it woke you up," he said.  
  
Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment before giving Harry a mischievous grin. "It's too bad I can't remember what your kisses felt like. I was only there for a bit of that last one."  
  
Harry stopped. Kissing Ginny had been a desperate attempt to save her using magic that he wasn't sure even existed. However, on reflection, he found that some level of him liked it.  
  
"Well, we can't have that. I have my first kiss and the girl doesn't even remember it."  
  
Harry slowly closed his eyes and leaned toward Ginny who was already closing hers and moving toward him. Their lips met in a simple kiss that lingered for only a moment before they both pulled back.  
  
"Wow!" Ginny whispered.  
  
"I liked that," Harry replied before leaning in for another one.  
  
He found himself meeting air.   
  
"Harry," Ginny said, "I enjoyed kissing you, but I'd like to get out of this place."  
  
Harry looked around. He had forgotten that they were in the Chamber of Secrets. "Ron!" he exclaimed. "I left Ron with Lockhart past the rock fall!"  
  
"Ron? Rock fall?" Ginny asked, her eyes wide, "Is Ron all right?"  
  
"Yes, he is, but we need to get back to him."  
  
Harry helped Ginny to her feet and found himself keeping hold of her hand after they were standing. Harry collected Tom Riddle's diary and put it in his pocket so Ginny would not have to touch the cursed object. On the way back to Ron, Harry filled her in on what had happened. Before long, they reached the rock fall to find that Ron had cleared enough room for them to pass one at a time.  
  
As soon as Ginny was through, Ron embraced her in a Weasley hug.   
  
"Where's Lockhart?" Harry asked after coming through the gap.  
  
"The git's back there," Ron gestured with his head. "Ginny, he tried to obliviate us with my broken wand and wound up cursing himself instead."  
  
Ginny giggled. "Serves him right for trying to do that to you."  
  
With that, the three of them made their way back to the entrance hoping to find both Lockhart and a way out. Upon finding the erstwhile professor, Harry and Ginny were startled by the blank, yet excited, expression on his face.  
  
"Hello," he said cheerfully. "You must be the lord and lady of the house. I've met your valet. He was most kind."  
  
"He's in a bad way," Ron said with a sigh, "and we're stuck here with him."  
  
"Dumbledore will get us out," Harry said with conviction. "He'll have some way."  
  
They were startled by music coming from somewhere. It was an unearthly music, yet not frightening. Suddenly, a bird appeared in a burst of flame.  
  
"Fawkes!" Harry cried as the bird swooped toward them and landed by Harry.  
  
"Harry," Ron said with trepidation, "you know this bird?"  
  
"This is Fawkes," Harry said firmly. "He's Dumbledore's phoenix."  
  
Ginny gasped. "Maybe your confidence in Dumbledore called him to us."  
  
"Fawkes," Harry said, "can you tell Dumbledore where we are? Maybe he can send us down a rope or a couple of brooms."  
  
Fawkes shook his splendid head and rose into the air, hovering in front of them.  
  
"He looks like he wants to try to pull you up by his tail feathers," said Ron, "but how will he lift you?"  
  
"Fawkes," said Harry, "isn't an ordinary bird. Everybody grab hold."

**Author's Note:**

> So Riddle never revealed his other identity to Harry here. Dumbledore tells Harry. 
> 
> They didn't get the Sword of Gryffindor or kill the basilisk. At least Harry now has his romantic life sorted.
> 
> Harry's opinion of kissing (prior to kissing Ginny) is roughly based on my own at about that age. A few of my peers were "going together" at that age, so Harry and Ginny's nascent relationship is within the realm of possibility, even if such things are not commonplace for that age.
> 
> Also, Dobby is still freed. Because I'm the author and I say so.


End file.
